Role Model

We had a great weekend. Orthodox Easter was Sunday, so everyone had at least 3 days of holiday (except bus drivers, people like that). A great time to get together with special friends...and that's what we did. Went over to Lutsk on Fri night train. Sat I went up north to some friends- same as last winter- when we built cameras with lego-type blocks and wore them as crowns. Dry as a bone here, for the most part. It did decide to rain just as I got off the bus in their town... with a 25-30 min walk ahead of me... ah well. We need the rain badly enough that I only half-minded. Didn't rain much anyway- was still dusty when I got there...And I only got lost once on the way there...yes- I've been there a hundred times... the next time.


I will know...Easter traditions are interesting and deep-seated here... and vary a bit from region to region.1- the Orthodox take a wicker basket (they're beautiful baskets) with bread and (other stuff- I don't know what all just now) in it and head off to church very early Easter Morning- like 5 or 6 am. There's a special service, the baskets and contents are blessed and they return home. Then because the day had such an early start and because the holiday is so important-everyone stays inside until after lunch...and lunch here is 2 or 3 pm, not 12 noon.


I really don't know the traditions well- there are so many of them and OK- they're not mine and I don't intend to make them mine. However- this I know: On Easter Sunday, you cannot catch a bus before 2 pm in the part of Kura where I was. No amount of standing by the road, at the stop, at the next stop and so on will make a bus appear Nope. And there weren't cars, either.


I didn't stay there and wait for hours- T&V convinced me that it was a lost cause- thankfully, I believed them. When we left at 1.30, there were just a few people stirring- all on the back paths and all on foot or motor bike. Downtown was deserted. No cars. No people. No nothing...
and certainly no buses.back to Kyiv late Mon night. Yest started a 10 day series of massages- neck, shoulders and back. Come to Kyiv- this only costs you just under $10 a time... and he's really good- a professional, employed at the clinic just around the corner from Julie's.